Vineyard-ing with the Obamas and Bill

A and I are hangin' with the Al and Tim on the Vineyard. Coincidentally President Obama and Hurricane Bill are scheduled to arrive tomorrow! I wogged and walked to Edgartown from the house this morning (it was far!) but had to see for my self the Obama souvenirs. There are t-shirts galore that say Obama 2009 - Martha's Vineyard Vacation. My favorite is a cardboard cutout of Sarah Palin wearing a N0bama 2012 shirt. Next to her mouth is a sharpie written call out bubble that says "I can see Martha's Vineyard from my house".

I hear Michelle and the girls are on the island already, but I haven't bumped into them yet. I've been practicing what I'm going to say if I run into Obama, even though I didn't bring appropiate presidential meeting clothes. I realize it's not likely that Barack and I will be hanging in the same places tomorrow...but, just in case, I'm working on my lines.

I swam in the pond twice today. Does that count for two showers? The heat and humidity is intense this weekend.

Happy Weekending!

Scrumptious Quotes

From my Sis upon receiving her dreamy ideal t-shirt:

 

"It does fit, I tried it on right away to make sure J It fits perfectly. I knew you'd be able to find me the t-shirt, you are the best sister ever!!"

 

 

From Sam, randomly:

 

"I thought I had found the perfect gummy bear when I got K-Mart brand bears last week... Little did I know that last night when at Target I would actually find the best-of-the-best gummy bear ever.  The Target brand (Market Pantry) has 10.5oz. bags of gummy bears for $0.99 each (compared to Haribo which is 7.5oz. for $1.79 each) and they are absolutely perfect in consistency and cuteness.  The even have tiny little paw prints on their tiny little gummy feet!  I prefer soft bears compared to ones that are harder on the outside and therefore harder to chew and these are just perfect!  My only hesitation with this particular variety is that there is a pink gummy bear included with all the 'normal' colors.  I'm not sure what flavor it is... perhaps strawberry.  I like it either way.

 

Next time you are at the Red Circle Boutique be sure to pick some up!"

 

 

Dreamy Creamy Vermont

Heading up to Martha's is always a treat. It's one of the last places in the country with no cell reception. Pearl took a break and I relished in being "un-plugged".

We spent the weekend in VT with much of A's family. The weekend was full of highlights, but the biggest was the 40th birthday party. It seemed like a quintessential VT party to me, but I'm a Cali girl. My judgement could be tainted. This party was fantabulous! It was put on by A's cousin's husband's brother. Got that? Taylor helps to run the family dairy farm (which is way fun) when he's not planning parties to celebrate 40th birthdays. There were about 10 people who had "Happy 40th Birthday" sung to them. A's cousin and her husband being two of them.

The party was held on family owned land (a hay field in the process of being turned organic) with a great view of the valley and no neighbors to disturb. Picture a big grassy green hill with a lit up white tent. Under the tent is a swing band, a table full of homemade desserts, and a couple kegs of VT beer. The "little cousins" (A's cousin's kids) were super awesome swing dancing partners. Colton wins the prize. He was demonstrating moves that will be all the rage soon. We enjoyed watching his enthusiasm and creativity all night long. There were rumors that he had a 3 hour nap prior to the party. Zoey didn't understand why she wasn't at the microphone singing, but her dancing was spectacular. Ella got kudos for not losing her flip flops through all the swing dancing. We had a great time!

The rest of the weekend involved:
-hot cinnamon rolls from Connie's Kitchen (I understand her kitchen has grown in size over the years),
-a trip to Willey's Country Store where Ella helped me pick out a purple t-shirt (I figure all Cali girls needa VT Country Store t-shirt),
-tubing on Caspian lake (Uncle Pete was a little confused on the hand signals, Jake, Jack, and A also rode the waves, I took pictures from the boat),
-lounging on the floating trampoline,
-catching up with everyone at the lakehouse,
-touring the Dairy Farm while the cows were being milked (Hi'i hooked a cows utters up to the pumping machine and then introduced A to a suckling calf. They stuck their hands in this toothless calf's mouth and pulled them out all slimy. Kris took our picture in front of the beautiful VT view),
-picking blueberries and raspberries on the farm (a never ending organic supply!)
-enjoying dinner prepared by Martha (assisted by Ann) which included delicious summertime corn on the cob (YUM!),
-dessert party! swing band! Colton!
-S.U.N.day (Sleep Unil Noon day....I only made it until Nine, beautiful VT was calling),
-munching on blueberries,
-playing nine holes of golf (yes, me! A is actually pretty good at the game of golf, Jake was captian of the Colby golf team, I wasn't too far behing Uncle Pete...ha!),
-BLTs for lunch at 3pm and more corn on the cob (YUM!),
-good byes (sad),
-driving back to Beantown with Jake and Hi'i. It was great to have their company.

Vermont is the most relaxing state I've ever been to. There's just something about the air in VT that lowers my shoulders and relaxes me. I heart VT and our family based there. We'll be back.

Summer is here!

Made it to Trenton!

This is a pic from Penn Station, NYC. I saw some great views of the NYC skyline but didn't capture them photographically. Thus, you get this proof that I actually passed through NYC. Can you see the sign with an arrow pointing to New Jersey?

I arrived in Trenton, my Pops old stomping grounds. He was right, it's not as exciting as Burlington VT. But we'll see how I feel after a couple days of the NJ life. An Italian restaurant called Seventh Heaven in Italian was good to us tonight. They complimented us some bruschetta appetizers and some butternut squash / corn croquettes and cooked green beans and carrots for sides. I think the free stuff came because we didn't order any appetizers or sides, just our entrees. All of it was delish!

As I lay down to sleep I'm wondering if it was so wrong of me to take a hot bath because the A/C in my room made me cold. Not very environmental of me, but it sure felt great and was a good calming way to end a busy day.

Good night almost full moon.

Water!

That's the bridge in the background. Still somewhere in CT.

Crossing a big bridge.

This is from the Amtrak train window somewhere in CT. I'm heading all the way to Trenton, NJ. So far the ride has been beautiful. I've seen many many sail boats. Smart me purposefully picked the side with the coastal view.

Who's Next?

Mr. Green?  Mr. White?  Mr. Red?

Would you like to be squished first?

 

 

C-bart's Scrumptious Roasted Red Pepper Chicken Salad

Initial Ingredients
2 Rotisserie Chickens from Costco (what a deal! and so yummy!)
2 large red bell peppers sliced and "roasted" or grilled with a bit of olive oil
scallions
celery
fresh basil from Mr. Basil (he lives on the front porch in a pot)

Chop all of the above and mix together in large bowl. (pulling the chickens off the bones is the most labor intensive part of this exercise. Try not to eat too much chicken while working. If you're like me and you pull the chicken when it's still warm, it's "one bite for me, one chunk to be chopped, one bite for me, one chunk to be chopped...")

Final Ingredients
Add in mayonnaise to moisten
Add ground pepper for flavor
Mix together and let chill in the refridgerator
Add sliced almonds just before serving

Voila!


We ate the chicken salad with a little dijon mustart, sliced tomato, and lettuce in pita bread and roll-up wraps (also purchased from costco) and it was scrumptious!

Smore Cupcakes!

Voila!

Complete with chocolate filling and graham cracker crust. Happy Birthday A!

Marshmallow Frosting

Does this look professional or what?